Police, community leaders decline invitation to discuss gang issues

Audra Gamble Audra Gamble @SentinelAudra

Sunday

Mar 3, 2019 at 9:00 AM

HOLLAND — Following the gang-related homicide of a 14-year-old Holland boy in February, several African-American community leaders hosted a community conversation to grieve and talk about a recent increase in gang-related activity in the Holland area.

But police, city officials and school administrators were notably absent from that meeting, where several attendees asked where those leaders were.

In an effort to facilitate a productive community conversation that included all relevant community leaders, The Sentinel sent out invitations to over a dozen police, faith, school and city officials for a public community forum, to be held at Herrick District Library on Monday, March 4.

An additional email was sent to Holland City Council members, Mayor Nancy DeBoer, Holland Public Schools Superintendent Brian Davis and West Ottawa Public Schools Superintendent Tom Martin, inviting them to be in the audience at the March 4 event.

“This was intended to be one of several planned forums hosted by The Sentinel in 2019 to help facilitate conversations about difficult topics in our community,” said Editor Sarah Leach. “We feel that our role as the community newspaper is to help foster conversations.”

Leach said the event was to be the first of four planned forums on topics ranging from gang-related violence, affordable housing, mental health funding and resources, and diversity and inclusion issues.

City council members Mike Trethewey, Dave Hoekstra, Jay Peters, Raul Garcia, Scott Corbin and Brian Lynn accepted the invitation, as well as the two school superintendents. Council member Wayne Klomparens said he would be out of town, but DeBoer and council member Quincy Byrd never responded.

Spoelhof and Watt agreed to be panelists on Feb. 21, while Grier said she “must reject the invitation” to be on the panel, but planned on being in the audience.

Several days after being invited to attend the panel conversation, Kempker, Messer, Davis and Martin sent a joint letter to The Sentinel declining to participate or attend.

The four community leaders said the sheriff’s office would be legally restricted from commenting on an ongoing police investigation like the murder case.

“In our shared experiences, this can tend to further frustrate and anger the community that wants specific answers about the event and investigation,” the letter reads. “This public forum so soon after such an event will not help the investigation and may increase tensions in the community and cause unneeded stress on the victim’s family.”

Multiple members of the murder victim’s family have spoken to a variety of media outlets, including radio stations and television stations. The victim’s family has not, at any time, requested the media not contact them, nor have they asked for privacy.

The police and school leaders also said they were declining the invitation to the forum because they felt “having The Sentinel serve as a moderator for such an event seems unusual and problematic,” calling the event more of a press conference than a community forum.

“If we were to consider being part of such a forum, the panel would mutually agree on who facilitates the panel discussion and agreement on the questions and format, to maintain the integrity of the process,” the letter states.

“This was never planned or communicated to be a press conference,” Leach said. “The invitation to all parties specifically said: ‘The conversation is an effort to bring leaders from the biggest stakeholder groups and provide a forum through which residents, police and community leaders can benefit from a healthy discussion on topics related to these issues.’”

The four letter-signers said they also believe more time would be necessary between Wells’ murder and such a community forum to allow police to focus on the open investigation. The letter-signers said, however, they were in private communication with several of The Sentinel’s invited guests and panelists, including Watt, Grier, school officials and the Boys & Girls Club.

“We also want to underscore that the sheriff’s office and HDPS have been in communication with MANY members of the community to both investigate the crime, and to monitor and help the community stay safe in the aftermath,” the letter states. “We mention this simply to make clear that there has been and continues to be conversations on these important topics with our community members to focus on keeping our community and schools safe.”

After The Sentinel received the letter from the school and police officials on Feb. 25, multiple other panelists who had already agreed to participate in the event contacted The Sentinel, stating they would no longer be able to be panelists at the forum, stating they had also seen the letter from the police and school leaders.

“It is very dangerous for any public official to use the influence of their position or their office to impact when and what the public gets to know,” said The Sentinel’s president and publisher, Orestes Baez. “That flies in a completely opposite direction than all media who seek to share information so the public can make their own informed decision. When you start down this path, where do you end?”

Holland United Church of Christ Rev. Bryan Berghoef and Hope Church Rev. Gordon Wiersma were also invited to be panelists on Feb. 26. Both agreed.

After hearing both Messer and Kempker declined to attend, however, Berghoef, Wiersma and Watt backed out in one collective email.

Three city council members (Trethewey, Garcia and Corbin) then also backed out of attending. Trethewey and Corbin said they felt constructive dialogue on the topic was necessary for the community, but declined to come after hearing most panelists had followed law enforcement’s lead and canceled. Several council members alluded to ongoing and future conversations, but did not offer any specifics.

Retired Holland Police Department Detective Drew Torres and Michigan State University criminal justice professor Scott Wolfe, who specializes in how police departments respond to negative publicity, agreed to be on the panel and planned on attending until The Sentinel canceled the event Feb. 28 due to lack of panelists.

The Sentinel has heard from multiple sources that city officials are planning some form of conversation about at-risk youth and gang violence, but it is unclear when such a meeting would take place, or whether the public or the media would be allowed access to the meeting.

The Sentinel, meanwhile, will continue to report on gang violence in the community, along with other difficult and complex topics affecting the area.

“I am very proud of the efforts of our newsroom to tackle the tough subjects, the hard data, the uncomfortable situations,” Baez said. “We want to encourage the conversation, leading the community efforts when we see a need.

“When you are the eyes and ears of the community you love as we are, it is absolutely necessary and, while difficult, we are proud to do so.”